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Lecturer(s)
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Červínek Zdeněk, JUDr. Ph.D.
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Tomoszek Maxim, JUDr. Ph.D.
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Kokeš Marian, JUDr. Bc. Ph.D.
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Bartoň Michal, doc. JUDr. Ph.D.
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Course content
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The individual seminars will focus on the following topics: - Liberal and illiberal democracies. - Restrictions on human rights. - Rule of law and public accountability. - Constitutionalism and division of power. - Forms of government: parliamentarism and the presidential system. - Populism as a necessary part of democracy? - Elections. - Insurance of democracy and the need to protect them. - Justice. - Political parties, civil society and transparency of public power.
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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Monologic Lecture(Interpretation, Training), Dialogic Lecture (Discussion, Dialog, Brainstorming)
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Learning outcomes
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Democracies have traditionally not died with gunshots and rifles during revolutions and military coups, but with the gradual weakening of the institutions that are supposed to protect them and the breach of the constitutional rules on which it is based. This course focuses on a deeper study of the phenomenon of liberal democracy and its weakening and even decline, which we have witnessed around the world in recent years. The aim of the course is to present from a comparative perspective the never-ending struggle for the preservation of democracy and the actors who traditionally engage in this struggle (politicians, courts, media, civil society). Students will gain a basic overview of the constitutional rules, institutions, processes and actors of the political struggle for the future of democracy, for example in the USA, Poland and Hungary. This knowledge will help students to better reflect the state of democracy in the Czech Republic.
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Prerequisites
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There are no pre-requisits for this subject.
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Assessment methods and criteria
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Essay, Student performance, Dialog
The course emphasizes the active participation of students in seminars based on their homework (especially the reading of required literature, which can exceptionally be assigned in English). Thus, for each seminar, students study the relevant passages from the compulsory literature (especially the world-famous books by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt How Democracy Dies). The seminars will be divided into two parts. In the first part, the teacher always introduces the topic with his explanation, completes the theoretical and comparative framework that students have built on the basis of homework. The second part will be devoted to a detailed critical discussion of the issues discussed, in which students will benefit from homework. The course will then end with a colloquium, which will be awarded to the student for writing an essay on one of the topics taught and its oral defense.
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Recommended literature
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LEVITSKY, Steven. ZIBLATT, Daniel. (2018). Jak umírá demokracie. Praha.
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Reimann, M., Zimmermann, R. (eds.). (2008). The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Rosenfeld, M., Sajó, A. (eds.). (2012). The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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TUSHNET, Mark. (2014). Advanced Introduction to Comparative Constitutional Law.. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
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